Media Advisory

Adjustments to Medicare payments based on geography are intended to account for regional variations in wages, rents, and other costs incurred by hospitals and individual health care practitioners. In a first phase report, the Institute of Medicine recommended changes to the data sources and methods used to calculate these payment adjustments to achieve greater accuracy. Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payment, Phase II: Implications for Access, Quality, and Efficiency, the second report from the study, assesses the potential effects of these proposed changes.

Media Advisory

The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults: In Whose Hands? -- a new report by the Institute of Medicine -- projects the types and level of mental health and substance use care that these older Americans will need and recommends actions to ensure that the U.S. has a competent and well-trained work force to provide this care.

Media Advisory

Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care, a new report from the Institute of Medicine, is available for IMMEDIATE RELEASE. The report examines a broad range of health information technologies and recommends actions that the government, health care providers, and technology vendors should take to improve patient safety.

Media Advisory

The federal government is investing billions of dollars to encourage hospitals and health care providers to adopt health information technology so that all Americans can benefit from the use of electronic health records by 2014. However, concerns about potential harm are emerging as providers increasingly rely on electronic medical records, secure patient portals, and other information technologies to deliver care. Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care, a new report from the Institute of Medicine, examines a broad range of these technologies and recommends actions that the government, health care providers, and technology vendors should take to improve patient safety.

Media Advisory

Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payments, a new report from the Institute of Medicine, assesses the methodology and data sources used to calculate payment adjustments and recommends ways to improve their accuracy. The report is the first of three examining Medicare’s geographic adjustment factors and will be released June 1.